Sania Mirza beats Shahar Peer

Tuesday, 18 March 2008

Sania Mirza put up a spirited fight back to get past Israel's Shahar Peer to move into the pre-quarterfinal of the USD 2,100,000 Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, California. After losing the first set in the tie-break, the Indian ace brilliantly rallied to beat her former doubles partner 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-3 in the third round match, on Sunday night. Sania's job becomes tougher from here as she faces world number eight Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, who beat Chinese Jie Zhang 6-4, 6-2 in a third round match. Sania is seeded 21st in singles in the Tier I event while Hantuchova is the fifth seed. In the USD 3,589,000 men's Masters Series event being held at the same venue, Leander Paes and his Australian partner Paul Hanley warded off the challenge of David Nalbandian and Gullermo Canas to storm into the doubles quarterfinals. The eighth seed Indo-Australian pair beat the Argentine duo 7-5 2-6 10-5 in the second round. Meanwhile, sixth seeded Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas won their opening encounter against the combine of German Christopher Kas and Dutch Rogier Wassen 6-3, 7-6 (3) to move into the second round.

 

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